Wanda Group

Wanda Group is the primary pseudonym of Louis Johnstone, a London-based visual artist and experimental musician whose hissy, collage-like sound constructions relate to themes of urban decay and personal issues. Communicating entirely in upper case on his stream-of-consciousness social media posts, his music has a similar surrealist quality, moving from softly throbbing techno beats to sparse ambient passages with no easily discernible narrative. Johnstone began issuing limited cassettes and CD-Rs under a variety of monikers during the mid-2000s, in addition to uploading various pieces of music online. Some of this music caught the attention of Los Angeles-based Leaving Records, who issued Johnstone's Caveman Smack cassette -- recorded under his abstract hip-hop alias Dem Hunger -- in 2010. The album was one of the most well-received releases in the early days of the label, but Johnstone became dissatisfied with the Dem Hunger project and abandoned it. His debut release as Wanda Group was the dubby, static-filled Bass Urine cassette on Vermont-based NNA Tapes in early 2011. The release was also well-received, and an outpour of Wanda Group releases followed on labels such as Vlek and Further Records, as well as numerous digital releases on Johnstone's own Umbro G imprint. In 2012, U.K. experimental techno label Opal Tapes issued Wanda Group's album Piss Fell Out Like Sunlight as a limited cassette. The haunting release was Johnstone's most acclaimed work to date, and the label issued it on vinyl the following year. Also in 2013, NNA Tapes released Wanda Group's vinyl LP A Slab About Being Held Captive, Where to Now? issued his EP Masculinity Is a Wonderful Thing, and the Outer Alsatian EP appeared on Gold Panda's Notown label. Following several digital releases, Wanda Group returned to vinyl in 2015 with We All Mutate Around the Mountain, issued by Italian label Second Sleep, and Sun Araw's Sun Ark label issued A Man Moves Out of His Skeleton on cassette that year. Early in 2016, NNA Tapes released Wanda Group's Ornate Circular cassette, and Opal Tapes issued his Central Heating LP.
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